Russia’s UN ambassador says tensions with the United States are probably the worst since the 1973 Mideast war. But Vitaly Churkin said Cold War relations between the Soviet Union and Russia in 1973 were different than US-Russia relations today.

Churkin said in an interview Friday with three reporters that “the general situation I think is pretty bad at this point, probably the worst … since 1973.” When Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack against Israel on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar that year, the Mideast was thrown into turmoil. And according to historians, the threat of the Soviet Union, which backed the Arabs, and the United States, Israel’s closest ally, going to war at that time was the highest since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.